Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/216

 On July 21 they pass the Lizard in the night steering for Portsmouth. 'On the 22nd we anchored at Spithead about 8 o'clock, and soon afterwards I had the supreme delight of seeing our three dear sons rush into our cabin—Plymouth, Holmesdale, and Frederick. So unexpected was the delight we were all quite overpowered, and unable to express it but by tears of joy.'

A happy ending to a time chequered with many a sorrow! Lord Amherst was fortunate beyond the common lot; for India has been stern to its English rulers. Thirteen years before, Lord Minto had hastened home grudging every hour of delay that kept him from the wife who was waiting for him in the old Scottish home. He reached England: he left London: but never on this earth was the longed-for meeting to be. 'When, in process of time, it became the part of another generation to "open the places that were closed," and when to those who did so came the desire "to show the image of a voice and make green the flowers that were withered," the last year's letters from Minto to India—so full of hope, of joy—were found tied together with a black string, and inscribed "Poor Fools." With these was a note with an unbroken seal, the last written by Lady Minto to her husband .'

Of Lord Amherst's after-life we can speak but briefly. He resumed his place at Court, being Lord